Police reach out to dead man's mom on Facebook

An Atlanta-area woman didn't find a Facebook message from police that her son was dead for three weeks.

Story highlights

Woman is angry after police sent Facebook message asking her to call

Anna Lamb-Creasey didn't find the notification for three weeks

Facebook messages from non-friends go into a little-known "Other" folder

An Atlanta-area woman is angry after she says police used a little-known messaging feature on Facebook to contact her after her son was killed.

Anna Lamb-Creasey says it took several weeks to find a message from Clayton County police telling her to call them. The news was that her son, 30-year-old Rickie Lamb, had died after being hit by a car January 24.

Even after finding the message, she initially ignored it. Lamb-Creasey says the message came from a Facebook account under the name "Misty Hancock" that featured an image of Atlanta rapper T.I. as its profile picture.

On Facebook, users can message other users who are not their friends. But those messages show up not in their inboxes but in an "Other" folder that many users don't know to look for.

Clayton County police did not immediately return a message Tuesday seeking comment. They told WSB they had tried reaching Lamb's family in more conventional ways, including visiting several physical addresses, but were unsuccessful.

Police told the station Monday that they were investigating why the message was sent from what appears to be a personal account instead of an official one.

The family finally contacted police on Valentine's Day when Lamb-Creasey's daughter, who received a similar message, called them.

A tearful Lamb-Creasey said she's furious at the department.

"They told me that they did the best that they can do. But I'm not sure about that," she said. "If they can track a criminal down, they couldn't track me down? They could have done better. I've been on my job 13 years. They could have found me."